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“Beat It”

Date range confirmed in Mike Smallcombe’s “Making Michael” (“By the fall… Michael came in with a song called ‘Beat It’”)

Michael Jackson, writer, “Moonwalk” autobiography

Sometimes I have a song I’ve written that I really like and I just can’t bring myself to present it. While we were making Thriller, I even held on to “Beat It” for a long time before I played it for Quincy. He kept telling me that we needed a great rock song for the album. He’d say, “Come on, where is it? I know you got it.” I like my songs but initially I’m shy about playing them for people, because I’m afraid they won’t like them and that’s a painful experience.

He finally convinced me to let him hear what I had. I brought out “Beat It” and played it for him and he went crazy. I felt on top of the world.

...Before I wrote “Beat It,” I had been thinking I wanted to write the type of rock song that I would go out and buy, but also something totally different from the rock music I was hearing on Top 40 radio at the time.

“Beat It” was written with school kids in mind. I’ve always loved creating pieces that will appeal to kids. It’s fun to write for them and know what they like because they’re a very demanding audience. You can’t fool them. They are still the audience that’s most important to me, because I really care about them. If they like it, it’s a hit, no matter what the charts say.

The lyrics of “Beat It” express something I would do if I were in trouble. Its message—that we should abhor violence—is something I believe deeply. It tells kids to be smart and avoid trouble. I don’t mean to say you should turn the other cheek while someone kicks in your teeth, but, unless your back is against the wall and you have absolutely no choice, just get away before violence breaks out. If you fight and get killed, you’ve gained nothing and lost everything. You’re the loser, and so are the people who love you. That’s what “Beat It” is supposed to get across. To me true bravery is settling differences without a fight and having the wisdom to make that solution possible.

...When Q called Eddie Van Halen, he thought it was a crank call. Because of the bad connection, Eddie was convinced that the voice on the other end was a fake. After being told to get lost, Q simply dialed the number again. Eddie agreed to play the session for us and gave us an incredible guitar solo on “Beat It.”

...We did go after a rock type of song with “Beat It.” We got Eddie Van Halen to play guitar because we knew he’d do the best job.

Quincy Jones, album co-producer, Telegraph (November 25, 2007) (archived) (mirror) (archived mirror)

[Beat It] was really key to this record, with its power, with everything it has, because I said at the time, 'I need a song like [The Knack's 1979 hit] My Sharona - we need a black version.' That's a strong rock 'n' roll thing there - that has the power of everything else [Jackson] writes. And he says, 'I got something here but I don't have any voices on it.' It was just what we needed. I decided to call Eddie Van Halen, and I didn't know him, to come play the solo on Beat It.

Eddie Van Halen, guitar soloist, Telegraph (November 25, 2007) (archived) (mirror) (archived mirror)

Everybody [from his band, Van Halen] was out of town and I figured, 'Who's gonna know if I play on this kid's record?'

“Musician” magazine (July 1984)

It was Michael and Quincy's idea to ask Eddie Van Halen to play on "Beat It", though their initial overture, as Eddie told Charles Young, was less than auspicious. "The phone in my house wasn't working too well", he remembers. "I could tell the person at the other end of the line couldn't hear me. Quincy called and asked, 'Eddie?' I say, 'Who's this?' He didn't say anything 'cause he couldn't hear me. So I hung up. He called back. Same thing, he couldn't hear me. Third time he calls back, he goes, 'Eddie?' And I said, 'What the fuck you want, you asshole?' He says, 'This is Quincy Jones.' 'Oh, my God. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I get so many crank calls that I didn't know.' He asked, 'You know, there's this song we'd like you to play on. Are you up for it?'"

Van Halen and his favorite engineer Donn Landee picked up a tape of "Beat It" and gave it a listen. They "asked for some changes. I didn't want to do solo over the part they were asking me to solo over." Calling Quincy the next day, he suggested editing out certain parts of the song and to solo where he preferred it, and the alterations were made. When Van Halen plugged his guitar into the Westlake studio's console Landee sat next to him, Quincy and Michael behind him. Two solos and it was done.

More amazing than Van Halen's solos was that he wasn't paid for it. "I didn't care", he says. "I did it as a favor. I didn't want nothing.... Maybe Michael will give me dance lessons someday.... I got two more friends now. People don't understand that. I was a complete fool, according to the rest of the band and our manager and everybody else." But he also points out, with justification, that Van Halen benefited from the Jackson connection as much as "Beat It" was aided by his solo. "Jump" made the black singles chart, with Van Halen reaching an entirely new audience because of Eddie's generosity and skill. "I'm obsessed with music and I get off on playing and I don't care how much money someone makes off it.... Put it this way. I was not used. I knew what I was doing. I don't do anything unless I want to do it."

“Guitar World” magazine (February 1990) (archived)

"Guitar World": "Beat It" created such a buzz. How did your involvement with that song come about?

Van Halen: Quincy Jones called me up to ask if I wanted to play on Michael Jackson's record.

GW: Of course, at the time, Michael Jackson wasn't the pop icon that he is today.

Halen: I didn't think he was. But when that record came out, it sure was a big one! It was really funny. I was out back, and something was wrong with the phone. And you know, there's always people calling me. So I said, "Hello?" And there was this guy answering, "Hello?" We couldn't hear each other, so I hung up. And then the call came again: "Is this Eddie? It's Quincy, man!" And I'm like, "Who the hell? What do you want, you asshole?" [laughs] So finally he says, "It's Quincy Jones, man!" And I'm thinking, Oh shit—I'm sorry, man. It was really funny. After the record, he wrote me a letter thanking me, signed, "The Asshole." [laughs]

GW: Did you work the solo out before you cut it?

Halen: No, I just noodled along. I actually changed part of the song, though, because they wanted me to solo over the break. So I said, "Can we edit it to a verse, so there's some chord changes?" Then I just soloed over what I thought should be the solo section. I did two solos, and they picked the one they liked. That was it. It took about 20 minutes to do. And there was Michael, standing in the back saying [mimics Michael Jackson] "I really like that high fast stuff you do!" [laughs]

GW: It seemed logical to assume that as of result of "Beat It" you'd receive a lot of offers to play on other people's records. Yet we haven't seen you do much of that.

Halen: Yeah, well, just recently Stevie Nicks...Steve Perg... everybody's calling. Thank God I have an answering machine! [laughs] Believe it or not, I did the Michael Jackson thing because I figured nobody'd know. I swear to God. The band—Roth, my brother and Mike—always hated me doing things outside of Van Halen. They'd say, "Keep it in the band." And it just so happened that Roth was on one of his Amazon jungle trips or whatever he does, and A1 was out of town, and Mike was out at Disneyland or something, so I couldn't consult them. So I just said, "Damn it, I'll do it and no one will ever know." So then it comes out and becomes song of the year and everything. My brother still won't let me live it down.

Steve Lukather, guitars/bass, Telegraph (November 25, 2007) (archived) (mirror) (archived mirror)

Quincy Jones [said Beat It] was way too heavy and to tone it down - it's Michael's record, not Led Zeppelin's. So I went back in and re-recorded it. Basically, me and [drummer] Jeff Porcaro remade that record to Michael's vocals, Eddie's solo and Michael playing two and four on a drum case. We spent a lot of time messing around with that song and to be honest, when we heard it I was like, 'This is rock 'n' roll? I don't think so.'

Bill Wolfer, keyboardist, “Invincible” magazine (November 2014) (mirror) (archived mirror)

There are a lot of synthesizers on [“Beat it” and “Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'”]–textures, atmospheric stuff–we call those sounds ‘pads.’ Quincy called it “ear candy”. On “Beat It”, for example, around 2:20 you hear what sounds like a synthesized choir–that me on a Roland Jupiter 8.

Matt Forger, sound engineer, MJ Data Bank interview

MJ data bank: Do you remember any tough moment during the Thriller sessions: any song that was exceptionally difficult or anything else?

Matt Forger: Yes, Beat It was particularly tricky. It was a song that constantly challenged the entire team. Michael wanted a punchy sound to match the emotion of the track, so everyone was constantly being pushed to the limit. The studio equipment seemed to sense the struggle and fought back in its own way. At one time during a playback of the song the monitor speakers actually caught on fire and smoke came pouring out of the wall.

It's as if the studio was fighting back, but we prevailed and beat the song into form and the result speaks for itself.

Chris Cadman, author, “Michael Jackson the Maestro”

Pete Townsend was the one first considered by Michael to play the guitar piece on ‘Beat It’ but when it was discovered that the Who were touring and it could be a problem getting him in the studio, Eddie Van Halen was invited.